Atheists know more about religion than its followers

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An interesting study just reported that most Americans don't know much about religion. That's not too surprising because I sometimes feel that most Americans don't know much about anything. But what was surprising is that Atheists knew more about most religions than the followers of those religions.

Here's a clip from the article:

CNN wrote:

Don't know much about religion? Study finds that you're not alone.

Odds are that you know Mother Teresa was Catholic, but what religion is the Dalai Lama?

How about Maimonides?

And - no Googling - what's the first book of the Bible? How about the first four books of the New Testament?

Americans who can answer all of those questions are relatively rare, a huge new study has found.

In fact, although the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz measuring knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life.

The survey is full of surprising findings.

For example, it's not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it's atheists and agnostics.

It's not Bible-belt Southerners who scored highest - they came at the bottom.

Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God did slightly worse than average, while those who say it is not the word of God scored slightly better...

The source is here: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know-much-about-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds

The article goes on to conjecture that Atheists know more about religion because they have thought more about it along the path to acquiring their Atheism.

I wonder how Americans would do if you quizzed them on their religion based on answers derived from Hollywood Movies (like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments). My guess is that most Americans get most of their religious information from movies and tv rather than from books (or even, THE book).

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I'm bookmarking with the comment: I agree, if you count agnostics.

My neighbor is an atheist who was raised a Christian, I was talking to her the other day about being raised by an agnostic who encouraged me to visit many places of worship. I've been Sufi dancing and to a Urantia meeting, among other religious places. Religion is kind of cool if you don't buy into one particular brand.

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@rosborne979,

So what??? You can have a theological doctorate and not believe... You need no knowledge to believe... Belief is a poor substitute for knowledge, but it is the only one we have... Do you believe in Santa Klaus??? Children do by default... People suggest it is true, reward their belief, and play on the children's ignorance... The churches do no less..

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@Fido,

Fido wrote:

Do you believe in Santa Klaus??? Children do by default... People suggest it is true, reward their belief, and play on the children's ignorance... The churches do no less..

This is false analogy, and it's also one of the theists favorite bullshit stories. Children don't make up the Santa Claus story anew with each newly born child--the story is told them by adults or other, older children. They definitely don't believe it "by default."

This same horseshit is peddled by theistic manipulators to suggest that everyone naturally believes in gods or a god. If that were so, you'd never need missionaries to spread the word among the heathens, and you'd never need to catachize your children. It's bullshit, and it's systematically peddled to the rubes.

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@rosborne979,

I think, like I used to do, that atheists are searching, and in the process learn a lot about religions of the world.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Fido wrote:
Do you believe in Santa Klaus??? Children do by default... People suggest it is true, reward their belief, and play on the children's ignorance... The churches do no less..

This is false analogy, and it's also one of the theists favorite bullshit stories. Children don't make up the Santa Claus story anew with each newly born child--the story is told them by adults or other, older children. They definitely don't believe it "by default."

This same horseshit is peddled by theistic manipulators to suggest that everyone naturally believes in gods or a god. If that were so, you'd never need missionaries to spread the word among the heathens, and you'd never need to catachize your children. It's bullshit, and it's systematically peddled to the rubes.

As I said, they are taught and there is no other alternative presented to them in their ignorance... Yes, children all believe in magic... So much happens beyond their understanding and ignorance prevails... A light switch has no rational explanation for the light working...Toilets can be a mystery beyond all knowing...Hell, many adults haven't figured out how toilets work... Most people flush after they use the toilet, for example, but in Detroit, everyone flushes before... They should hang a sign on the door saying: check out my big stinking prize... Welcome to Detroit!

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@rosborne979,

Did anyone beside me take the short 15 questions test?

Got 12 out of the 15 correct that placed me in the top 87 percent of the population.

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@BillRM,

The link only gave me a 10 question quiz. I got 9 right.

I can't recall which one I missed.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

I took it too just now and there were only 10 questions and I had 8 right.
I am not an atheist.

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@boomerang,

I got those 10 right but there were a total of 32 on the PEW quiz.

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I only saw a ten question test. I got ten of ten. It was so simple it was stupid.

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@BillRM,

BillRM wrote:

Did anyone beside me take the short 15 questions test?

Got 12 out of the 15 correct that placed me in the top 87 percent of the population.

That's because it didn't involve questions about going downwind faster than the wind, otherwise you would have failed Wink

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

Quote:

That's because it didn't involve questions about going downwind faster than the wind, otherwise you would have failed

So they was able to pull a hoax on a hobbies group big deal.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

Quote:

So they was able to pull a hoax on a hobbies group big deal.

If you're going to accuse of of a hoax, at least be accurate and complete regarding who you claim we actually hoaxed -- including:

San Jose State University Aerospace Engineering Department. This includes department professors with multiple Phds from other noted Universities such as Stanford and MIT.

The Aero Department at Stanford University (PHD professor Ilan Kroo)

Cornell University Enginnering Department (Phd professor Andy Ruina)

The preeminent aerodynamicist of our time -- MIT professor Mark Drela.

The Guinness world record folks.

Joby Energy -- a highly respected and reputable wind energy research company.

Google -- not exactly staffed with rubes.

Larry Page -- he didn't exactly make his billions by being gullible.

So on and so forth.

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@ThinAirDesigns,

Still trying to sell this on the net I see!!!!!!!!!!

I was in the middle of writing a long reply before I took note of who you are.

The very fact that you feel the need to monitor a large part of the internet to jump on any comment over this matter is telling in and of itself.

When are you planning on accessing all this unlimited energy by placing east/west rails on the Great Plains and running generators carts back and forth?

In any case this is off tropic on this thread except for the fact that atheists do not tend to believed in unlimited energy any more then in a god or are impress with the titles of anyone trying to sell such nonsense

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8 out of 10. I evidently don't know much about Indonesia, and foolishly thought the Jewish Sabbath began on Saturday. Not an atheist.

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@Ticomaya,

Yes I got that one wrong myself............

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@Ticomaya,

I made the mistake about Indonesia too. Imagen just a few days I asked about the dominat religion in Indonesia and got the answer Muslim.

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@Ticomaya,

One of my previous employees couldn't drive or work after sundown on Friday. In good traffic our office was about an hour from his home. In bad Friday afternoon traffic... That meant that during the winter months he had to leave work by 2:00 on Friday in order to get home before sunset.

Our main client was in CA -- two hours earlier than us. It took a while but they finally came to realize that they couldn't ask for anything that required his assistance after noon on Fridays. Some of them wondered allowed if that was a perk worthy of converting for.

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@ThinAirDesigns,

I watched the video. The faster than wind is a selected portion of the vehicle's movement i.e. when the stored energy was converted to kinetic energy. It was markedly slower than the wind when storing the energy into the propeller which was acting like the flywheel.

1 Reply

Atheists know more about religion than its followers

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